After the disappointment of last week we looked a lot more like the team we know we can be and were slightly unlucky not to sneak a point. We started well with Paul Harvey forcing a good save from John Gould but we were soon a goal down.
Stilian Petrov found space in the box and he chested the ball nicely to set up a volley into the bottom corner. One down inside ten minutes did not bode well.
However, we managed to stop a goal rush and Martin Wood was unlucky with a header that flew across the face of goal. That was about it attacking wise but Goram only had to palm away a weak Larsson shot. Berkovic sclaffed an effort when he should have done better but the main talking point of the half was the sending off of John Davies. After a silly challenge that got him booked early on, he should have been on his best behaviour. A wrestling match with Petrov saw a second yellow and he got his marching orders.
The second half saw Motherwell keep two men up front but we never looked too dangerous. That said, Goram was largely a spectator although he had to watch as Chris Sutton had a low effort which struck the post. Jackie McNamara levelled the teams at ten men apiece with a nasty tackle on Benito Kemble.
After treatment, Benito limped back on but he struggled till the end of the game. Chris Sutton had been booked during a confrontation in the first half and with his continual fouling he was always likely to pick up another yellow. Eventually the referee had enough and gave the Englishman a red card much to the delight of the small but noisy travelling support.
As the game came to an end, Lee flashed an effort across goal and Stuart Elliott blasted an attempt into the stand. That was it really but we should take heart from a decent performance. We even moved off the bottom of the league!
Celtic 1 'Well 0
Team: Goram; Corrigan (Elliott), Kemble, Strong, Hammell; Davies, Harvey(Townsley), Brannan, McMillan; Wood (Nicholas), McCulloch
Attendance 58,534
05 August 2000